Another Congress wipeout likely

Voting began for 70 Assembly constituencies of the national Capital on Saturday. Early trends show huge gain for the BJP, a big blow to the ruling AAP, and another washout for the Congress.

The fight in the Capital has been largely a numbers game between the BJP and the AAP, but it is the Congress’s pathetic show that says a lot about the party’s fortunes in the UT which it ruled for 15 years in a row under former Chief Minister late Sheila Dikshit.

Early trends showed the Congress leading in only one seat Badli after the first few rounds of counting but that too got wiped out after a few more rounds. Latest trends show the party heading for a duck.

If the grand old party ends with 0 seats, this will be its third consecutive defeat in Delhi Assembly elections. The party will draw a duck for the third time in a row.

Such a poor show by the party comes despite its top leaders campaigning hard with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi holding multiple rallies before elections.

The vote share of the Congress has also been dismal over the years.

After the first few rounds of counting on Saturday, the BJP and AAP have crossed 40 percent vote percentage but the grand old party is hovering at around 6 percent, a little better than 2020 numbers of 5.44 percent.

The last time the Congress opened its account in the capital was way back in 2013 elections when it won 8 seats. It was the same year when Arvind Kejriwal led AAP entered the electoral arena.

In 2015 Assembly elections, AAP won 67 seats (54.3 percent vote share), BJP 3 (32 percent vote share) while the Congress drew a blank (9 percent vote share).In 2020 Congress again drew a duck with 0 seats and less than 5 per cent vote share. AAP again won big with 62/70 and BJP 8.